The meeting of EARS, the European Alliance of Rescue Centres and Sanctuaries
Fundació MONA has been the host organisation of this meeting.
Representatives of more than 20 organisations from the main rescue centres and wildlife sanctuaries in Europe have been working together. Representatives of CITES from the Ministry of Ecological Transition and members of SEPRONA have also participated in the meeting with presentations.
EARS, which this year celebrates its tenth anniversary, is a network that allows organisations that share criteria and standards of quality and professionalism to work together to achieve common animal welfare and conservation goals. This European network works to promote and achieve continuous improvements in animal welfare and to address the different issues that make their existence necessary. It ensures that rescue centres in each region can contribute to important national and regional issues and debates, and that their voice, interests and concerns are represented and heard in the European Parliament.
Technological innovations that change lives
This is the case of the new device presented during the conference for non-invasive electrocardiograms on animals. A project that has been carried out by engineers from the UPC’s Instrumentation, Sensors and Interfaces Group and the MONA Foundation and which represents a before and after in the monitoring of the cardiac health of animals in captivity. It involves sensors integrated into gloves, with which the caregiver has to touch two points on the animal and wait a few seconds to obtain the results.
In the case of the chimpanzees living in MONA, being able to carry out these controls simply by touching a finger on each hand of the animal, without having to anaesthetise them, is a tool that can directly save their lives, as the main cause of death in captivity of our closest relatives is heart disease.
Synergies to collaborate with Ukrainian centres
One of the participants was the Domazhyr Bear Sanctuary in the Ukrainian city of Lviv. The stories of its director have left all the attendees distressed. The odyssey it is to get to work every day and return home, the discovery of bears tied up and abandoned in small cages in restaurants that use them as tourist attractions, or how missiles pass over their heads and the fires in the facilities where the animals are kept caused by shrapnel falling from the sky. A nightmare that is difficult to solve as long as the war lasts. But the EARS centres have agreed to greater coordination to improve conditions for the animals and their caretakers, and the provision of equipment such as transport cages and vehicles for animal rescues.
Ukraine, Skole | 2021 06 22 | Rescue of bears Sirko, Ruta and Andor from private keeping in hotel at the restaurant Edelweiss in Skole, Ukraine. Afterwards the bears were transferred to BEAR SANCTUARY Domazhyr. © FOUR PAWS | Svetlana Dmitrenko
